Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries nor its characters. They belong to L.J. Smith, Kevin Williamson, Julie Plec, The CW Network, and whoever else.
Just a Stop on the Road
She closes her eyes and listens to the softness of his breathing. There's a sweetness in their embrace; he's so young and fragile in her arms. She can hear the thumping of his heart, the dull hum of his pulse. She thinks, 'I could go to sleep to this lullaby for the rest of my life.'
And she really does mean for the rest of however long she (and he) will leave.
But the harshness of the door slamming and the tension that lingers around his uncle like a black shroud slithers into her perfect moment. Everything John Gilbert represents comes wafting in as he stalks through the house; choking the beautiful stillness, snuffing out her lovely, little moment until she reluctantly is fleeing to the safety of her house until 'Uncle John' returns to the night.
The dark is as much home to the haters and hunters of her kind as it is to her.
Dawn will bring Jeremy out of the house, morning will call him out to her again. She thrives in his bright world of high school tests and carefree, teenage living. This is where she finally belongs; in this accursed town of all places, with that wicked bloodline running meaningless through innocent Jeremy's veins.
She walks home with a skip to her pace and thinks, so this is what's like to finally belong to more than just her mother.
But Momma is the road she can't help but follow.